Learning While Working: Why Students Love Outlier

While Outlier contributors come from a wide variety of backgrounds, students in particular tend to do very well on our projects. Earning extra income on Outlier helps graduate and undergraduate students cover costs like tuition, living expenses, books, and much more. Based on our conversations with these contributors, here are a few reasons why students enjoy working with us to build great AI.

Flexibility

For most students, each day is different. Academic workloads tend to ebb and flow around class schedules, meetings, exams, extracurriculars, and holiday schedules. This can make holding down a traditional job somewhat challenging — and sometimes impossible. Fortunately, with Outlier, the work always fits your life. 

Carlson, an Outlier contributor studying at the Georgia Institute of Technology, finds the projects very amenable. 

“I’ve been able to work and fit it into my schedule wherever I can,” he says. “Either in between classes or after doing homework.”

Show off your skills

While service, admin, and retail jobs are a fine way to earn money as a student, it can be especially valuable when your work closely relates to your field of study. Outlier projects cover topics as wide-ranging as math, computer science, history, science, and writing. For many students, these areas of expertise can often be undervalued in the job market, and they crave the opportunity to flex those skills.

“When you grow up and get a degree, you are not able to participate in Math Olympiad anymore as a competitor,” says Julio, an Outlier contributor. “When I create or solve a math problem on Outlier, I am experiencing that part of my life that I missed.”

Low stress

Successfully juggling class, homework, and exams is hard enough; a hectic, demanding job only adds to the stress. Working with Outlier, students have full control over their workload. Contributors sign on when they’re ready and sign off when they’ve had enough, and there will never be urgent emails needing to be answered once you’re off the clock.

Hands-on experience with AI

As the AI industry continues to expand, many students are looking for a way to get their foot in the door. They may know a little bit about AI, but only as a topic in the classroom (or, let’s be honest, as a way to get a headstart on their homework). They’d greatly benefit from hands-on experience so they can decide if it’s an area they’d like to pursue after graduation. Outlier projects give them that chance.

“This has really opened my eyes to a field that I think has a lot of potential and growth,” says Geoff, a contributor. “We're just at the beginning of it and it's already grown so much.”